Alberta Premier Alison Redford swept into a convention for municipal leaders on Thursday to announce the province is inching forward with several flood mitigation projects recommended by an expert panel earlier this year.

During a speech at the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association convention in Calgary, Redford said consultations and environmental reviews for a diversion channel around High River and a dry dam upstream of Calgary’s Elbow River would soon begin.

"Our hope is that we’re going to be able to do some work in the spring," Redford told reporters following her speech to municipal leaders. "But I would qualify it by the fact that this is going to depend on what the final design is and how the stakeholder engagement goes and how the regulatory approvals go."

It’s the latest in a string of announcements made by the Redford government leading up to the Progressive Conservative party’s convention this weekend in Red Deer — where the premier will face a leadership review.

Flooding in June caused the shutdown of Calgary’s downtown for several days. Officials estimate flood damage to city-owned assets and infrastructure at $460 million.

In High River, the flood caused massive damage to town infrastructure, businesses and homes, tearing asphalt roads, smashing storefronts and lifting houses from their foundation. Hundreds of town residents are still displaced by the flood.

In the wake of the flood, now considered Canada’s largest — and costliest — natural disaster, a provincial flood mitigation panel made several recommendations to prevent a similar event.

Andre Corbould, the head of the Alberta Flood Recovery Task Force, said the flood mitigation projects could have reduced June’s flooding by 30 to 40 per cent.

"For the big projects we still have a lot of engineering work to do," said Corbould. "For example, the diversion (channel) we still have to confirm where the alignment is, and that of course changes the cost."

The province wants more study before planning another of the government’s major flood-protection ideas: a diversion tunnel from the Glenmore Reservoir to the Bow River.

The city will get $250,000 from the province to conduct a feasibility study on the underground diversion tunnel — a proposal Calgary’s mayor once chalked up as fantasy.

"When I first heard about this tunnel under 58th Ave., I thought it was pure science fiction," said Naheed Nenshi. "But as we’ve talked to people who are experts in water management around the world, people from the Netherlands for example, they say this thing is very common and it actually makes a lot of sense."

If built, the diversion tunnel will be built and managed by the city. But funding will have to come from other levels of government, said Nenshi.

"We don’t have the money to build it. We don’t even have the money to study it," he said. "So providing that grant to the city of Calgary to our own expert panel to do that study is a very good idea."

But for the dry dam and High River water bypass, Alberta is ready to immediately launch consultation and environmental review, Redford said at the convention.

High River Mayor Craig Snodgrass, who was first elected to council in October, said he was pleased with the announcement, but cautioned the province to proceed carefully with any diversion canal around the town.

"When you divert it around the town where does it go?" Snodgrass said. "I’m sensitive about going south with our water because we’re putting our problems onto other towns, like Nanton."

The province estimates the June flood swept through the southern Alberta town at a rate of 1,500 to 1,800 cubic metres per second. The town typically sees some flooding at just over 200 cubic metres per second.

Danielle Smith, leader of the Official Opposition Wildrose and MLA for Highwood, said a single diversion likely wouldn’t prevent a similar flood from ripping through the town.

"We probably need a couple of diversions," Smith said.

Further, Smith said the province can’t focus solely on a diversion channel around High River.

"We probably need to look at where our head waters begin and see if there’s any work that needs to be done on replanting trees or repairing the grasslands," she said. "We probably need to look at dry dams, berms dikes and other measures."

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Province considering flood diversion around High River and dry dam on Elbow River